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James, Hurricanes Navigating New Reality

Hurricane Club

By Christy Cabrera Chirinos
HurricaneSports.com

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – It was a two-sentence statement that left the sports world stunned.

Last Thursday afternoon, the NCAA announced that it was canceling all of its winter and spring championships in response to the public health threat posed by the spread of COVID-19.

Yes, the NBA had, a day earlier, announced it was suspending its season for thirty days. And after that, professional leagues and college conferences across the country announced they were pausing their games, too.

But it was the NCAA’s decision to cancel – not postpone – many of its most popular events that seemed to send a crucial message: sports was in uncharted territory and without March Madness or the baseball and softball College World Series or NCAA Championships, it would be a long while before sports returned to what they once were.

That decision meant that, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, four Miami Hurricanes who’d been preparing to compete for titles at the Division I Men’s and Women’s Indoor Track and Field Championships were forced to return home, their title hopes dashed.

In Orlando, where Miami’s baseball team had just notched a big win over UCF and was preparing to travel for a three-game series at Virginia Tech, the seventh-ranked Hurricanes learned their promising season was over.

And in Coral Gables, after a whirlwind trip to Greensboro, North Carolina for the now-canceled ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament, Blake James, Miami’s Director of Athletics, began the work of trying to navigate a new reality unlike any he had faced before.

Practices, games, recruiting, all of it had stopped – for now.

Still, as tough as it may have been to tell his coaches about what the NCAA’s decision meant for their teams, James understood the severity of the situation facing not just his athletic department or the University of Miami – but everyone living in the United States and beyond.

“It’s hard to know you’re ending a student-athlete’s opportunity to compete in a sport they’ve worked so hard at and that they strive to be the very best at, so that part was hard,” James said.  “But we’re all about the wellbeing and safety of our students and this was a decision that, I believe, was really made with the long-term wellbeing of not only our students, but our entire country in mind.  Obviously, there’s disappointment that the young people in our program aren’t going to be able to pursue their dreams at this time, and it’s going to hurt, but it’s a situation here I think everyone recognizes is unprecedented.”

Since the NCAA’s announcement last Thursday, the White House has urged Americans to cancel or postpone events with 10 or more attendees in an effort to try and slow the spread of COVID-19.

At UM, spring break was extended a week and when the semester resumes March 23, classes will be in online and remote learning environments through the remainder of the semester.

For James, ensuring Miami’s student-athletes are prepared to handle that change is a top priority. Making sure that they have the resources to stay healthy and are ready to compete again when sports return is important, too.

That’s why he is currently working with Miami’s emergency management team to put together a plan to make sure the Hurricanes have all the resources they need moving forward.

“My first thing is supporting the institution in the direction we go in terms of how the rest of the academic year is going to look and how our kids are going to learn in the online system,” James said. “Going online with classes is a big thing. I think from there, it’s really looking at the long-term wellbeing of our students and figuring out what is the right thing to do.”

He continued, “We want to create the right structure for our students, within the guidelines and parameters that we’ve established as an institution.  There will always be remote support. Will they have the ability to talk to a nutritionist? Without a doubt. Does that mean the nutrition center will be open every day? No. Will they have the ability to get certain types of treatment for rehab? Of course. Will it always be in person? Probably not. It’s a situation where we need to always be supportive and in line with the institutional expectations, while we handle and address the needs of our students.”

While there won’t be any games played any time soon, there is still plenty of work to be done.

Along with finding solutions to some of the immediate needs of Hurricane student-athletes, James knows there will be more hurdles to cross in the coming weeks and months, especially after the NCAA announced Friday that it agreed it will be appropriate to grant eligibility relief for student-athletes competing in spring sports.

But he’s confident Miami, the ACC and the NCAA will find the right solutions. And the games will begin again – when the time is right.

“Working through those details and being able to communicate that information correctly to the young people in our program is something that is critical,” James said. “Putting a structure in place that allows us to move back into the current college athletics model is something we’ll have to look at. How do we transition out of this period, knowing it will probably be different for different campuses at different times, depending on how this virus evolves around the country?

“There’s a lot of things that will go into it, but at the end of the day, it points back to where we always want to be: recognizing the safety and wellbeing of our students has to be our top priority and providing them with a world-class student experience.”